Clam chowder

CLAM CHOWDER

This is a mussel’s soup which I first ate in Los Angeles, in 1973 and I never forgot its excellent taste.

In a Pacific Ocean beach, on a pier, there were restaurants of various nationalities.

In a Chinese restaurant they were selling live crabs. They kept them in tanks with water.

Each client was taking a net and chose the crabs he wanted.

The restaurant boiled the crabs on the spot, broke them and put them in large bags and gave them to the customers.

In the same restaurant they were making a delicious clam chowder.

I tried to make this soup at home.

I made the recipes of clam chowder that I found on some American cookbooks, but I didn’t succeed to make a soup close to the one I have eaten.

After many years in a French cookbook I found a very good recipe for clam chowder.

I changed this recipe several times until J managed to make a soup that resembled the one I have eaten in Los Angeles.

I write below this modified recipe.

SOUP WITH MUSSELS

Ingredients

600 grams of cleaned mussels, fresh or frozen

200 grams of whole medium shrimps with their shells 

2 large dry onions

6 cloves garlic

1 medium potato

3 tablespoons sharp flour

80 grams of margarine

2.5 cups milk

300 g. cream 30% fat

                

Instructions

The shrimps have along their back an intestine that is sometimes black and it contains sand. 

This intestine should be removed.
Take a shrimp in your hand and hold it so its back is looking at your face.

With a sharp knife cut the shell of the shrimp along its back.

Open a little the flesh  and find the gut.

Put a toothpick under the intestine and pull it up. Work carefully to avoid breaking it.

If you break the gut, then you have to remove each piece separately.

Remove the head and the shell of the shrimp and throw them away.

In the same way clean all the shrimps and leave them aside.

You can of course avoid this work if you buy cleaned and peeled shrimps. 

Unfortunately these shrimps don’t taste as good.   

After you finish the shrimps you have to clean the mussels one by one.

Take the flesh of a mussel in your hand and with your fingers open it.

Look for small pieces of broken shell in the flesh.

If you find any remove them and throw them in the trash.

In each mussel look for something that resembles a small dark tongue. 

This tongue is often covered with algae.

With kitchen scissors cut this tongue, the algae and the root of the tongue underneath it.

 After you clean all the mussels, mince them with scissors.

Put in a pot the margarine and heat it until it melts.

Put the chopped onions in the pot and sauté.

Stir and add the chopped garlic.

Let the pot over low heat until onions and garlic are completely softened.

Put in another pot the milk and the cream together.

Place the saucepan over medium heat to warm up the milk.

You want warm milk not boiling milk.

Shortly before milk inflates remove the pot from the heat.

When the onions and garlic are completely softened, add the flour in the pot.

The flour sticks easily so you have to stir it constantly.

Mash the potato in a food processor.

When flour begins to stick to the pan, add the mashed potato.

Lower even further the heat and stir constantly to cook the potato without sticking.

Add the chopped mussels and stir constantly.

Mussels should be cooked over very low heat so as not to damage their taste.

Cut the shrimps into small pieces and add them in the pot with mussels.

Cook and stir until all the ingredients are done.4-5 min are enough.

Pour the hot milk into the mussels.

Stir so the ingredients won’t stick to the pot.

The soup should be warm up but shouldn’t boil.

Remove the pot from the heat just before boiling..

This soup is served lukewarm.